I got my robot to finally listen to me. I don't fully understand how the robot system works in buildcraft and can't find any good documentation on it. I didn't have the emerald gate at all. This time I put the gate on the power pipe that the robot sits on. Set the 3D zone he was to work with a "map location" item. Set that in the gate. He has been enjoying the fresh air. Didn't have to cage him up after all.
Still don't understand that gate. I tried setting it so that he would return to base when I turned off a redstone signal. It didn't work. He just went about harvesting. So he isn't going to get any days off anytime soon. His choice to ignore me when I tell him he can take a break, I guess.
Any one know of a good set of documentation for the robot related stuff? The wiki I used wasn't fully fleshed out in that area. (I know I could edit it into a wiki, I just want to play though.Not spend hours figuring out how something works so I could hope to half-way document it properly)
My quick and dirty solution to using robots (at least the harvester anyway):
1) Use the blue markers to define an area (usually a 2D area at the level of your crop sticks). Right click on the primary marker with a Map Location (paper around a yellow dye). That will define where the robot works.
2) Quartz OR gate at the docking station. I use that with two sets of logic:
redstone on - goto station (my normal failsafe)
redstone off - work in area, (plunk the yellow map area defined in #1 in the square next to that)
If you placed the docking station on a non-power pipe, you'll need another one placed on a *buildcraft* power pipe (not Mekanism) within 96 blocks of the station. Preferably 64. This is the Robot's recharge pad, which he will automatically wander over toward as needed.
I used hopperhocks for collection. Later I dropped robots altogether in favor of the Forestry multifarm, as there are no tile entities left on the ground during harvesting (helps a ton on lag). Pipes replaced later on for AE cable (warning, that bit needs quite a bit of power), so pipe animations were removed too.
This series has been a really good primer on most things BC (and a ton of Forestry too), including the use of pipe logic to implement a basic 4-bit automated power controller.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb8lj2ziBwwwsHVhOqz09k9s_Df_boVll
The robot specific stuff starts at #53, here:
He prefers the Zone Planner for robot areas, but at one point he did touch on the method above. I still prefer the markers as they are more precise.